Heart of Asgard
by zippy zany
Summary: After Loki is taken back to Asgard the ruling council has decided on his punishments. Things don't go according to what they expect. This story is told through the eyes of the Allfather.
1. The Sentence

**Summary:** After Loki is taken back to Asgard the ruling council has decided on his punishments. This story is told through the eyes of the Allfather.

_Skip my ramblings if you like… _

I know there are many many versions of this story out there, however I hope this one is different enough to warrant a read. There is no Loki torture in it – sorry. The whole story is about Loki and he is the main character however it is told from the eyes of Odin, who I was really disappointed with in the last movie. (Thor 2 spoiler) Who tells their child that their birth right was to die? Especially a child you adopted! I have a friend who was adopted, her father told her that they choose to be her parents – they choose her! Odin chose to raise Loki, unless he was a bastard and really the only reason he had taken Loki was for a reason then there is nothing I can do about it, except shame on you – you all powerful god! And there are so many stories out there when he is a bastard. So in this one he is not.

I don't own anything – if I did the movie would have been called 'Loki'

If you are not aware of my style of writing, I write a lot of thought and explanations and not a lot of dialog – in this story there will not be a great deal of dialog and even when there is it will show up in later chapters. Please give it a try!

I don't have a beta sooooo if there is anyone out there that is interested… therefore all the mistakes belong to me.

**Chapter 1 - The Sentence**

Odin was sitting on his personal balcony on a fine Asgardian morning. He often sat outside in the mornings and went over the official papers from the day before that needed his seal and most times his charm. He also planned what was to be done for the day. Right now he was lost in his thoughts as he gazed out over the beautiful gardens of the palace without seeing its beauty. In his hand he held the official papers that gave the details of what his youngest had done and the sentence. It was waiting for Odin's seal before it became official and could be carried out.

The sentence for Loki's crimes against Jotunheim and Midgard were decided by the Asgardian council and read out in court the day before. Contrary to popular belief Asgard was not run by the king but the 'Council of Nine', also known as the 'court'. They were the governing force behind Asgard. The king held a seat in the council and could veto certain things and make quick judgments in times of need but it was the council that decided the fate of the kingdom. One of the many reasons Odin had been very angry at Thor for going to Jotunheim by himself. He was to have been king that day, he had been standing in the council chambers for the last six centuries, he should have known what he could and couldn't do.

Considering what Loki had done Odin thought the council had gone easy on him, it wasn't by any means a light sentence but it wasn't the harshest the council had handed out. He was to have his magic stripped, the standard Asgardian punishment for mages who misused their magic. It was disappointing for a mage who showed so much promise in the magical arts but they kept their magicians in line with the threat of losing their magic and it was a very big deferrer for those who were inclined to study the art. It kept those with the power to move planets on their whim, cover an entire world in goo or create new life forms in line.

Odin had watched his son carefully as the sentence was read out, he had shown disappointment but Odin was pleased that he had not made a fuss. He had known what was at stake and handled himself as the prince he was. Actually Odin had been watching him since the moment he was brought back. Throughout the whole procedure Loki had been uncharacteristically quiet. Odin had been expecting threats and curses. However Loki looked like he was listening to an inner voice than to those around him. Sometimes he seemed to be able to focus on here and now but most of the time he looked like he was not even here. Odin also noticed that Loki's inattention also annoyed many of the council. Odin was sure that the reason for the silence was the shame of losing however Loki had held himself up well, and if Odin wasn't so pissed off at him he would tell him so.

After the removal of his magic Loki would be sentenced to a 100 years of hard labor in the mines, not even royalty could get away from some of Asgard's punishments for causing mayhem. After his time in the mines he was to be reevaluated and Odin then as king would decide what was to be done with him, whether to give him more hard labor or move him into more light sentences around Asgard which inevitably would lead to Loki once again joining the local population as a normal citizen or the second prince as he had not yet forsaken his son.

Loki would not be the first royal family member who played around with Asgard or with other realms so none of the ruling council of Asgard was surprised that Odin hadn't forsaken him. Loki was still considered young by their standards; if this had happened a hundred years earlier then it would have been Loki's parents and mentors who would have been blamed as they should have been watching him. Loki had just come into age 46 years ago when he turned a 1000, he was barely an adult in their eyes. So despite trying to destroy one realm and sublimate another they were rather easy on him.

The court was used to royal members who popped up once every millennium who thought they were better than the rest of the universe, pretty understanding under the circumstances, as they raised their royalty to rule the universe and be worshiped as gods. There was always one that let the power go to their heads. A hundred years of working in the mines in dark and horrible conditions, then a couple of more centuries working on the farms, stables or even the palace kitchens would cure Loki of any motion of superiority. A few hundred years of hard labor was nothing to a person who was just 1046 and would live into his 5th millennia. It was not something to ignore however it would not the defining thing in Loki's life.

Odin had made the conscious decision of leaving his sons true origins a secret from everyone as well as the little mischief at Thor coronation. He had thought that was exactly what Loki was aiming at: mischief. Odin himself knew that Thor hadn't been ready however he thought that he would learn on the job. He hadn't just realized how unready Thor was until the weapons vault.

If things hadn't gone sour he would have had a long talk with his youngest about letting his king know about his concerns. It was also a reflection on his part, had he become that inaccessible to his youngest that instead of talking with him about his concerns he had come up with an elaborative plan to stop the coronation? If only Loki had talked to him, he would have told him that despite Thor getting the crown, the whole council had known that Thor was not ready, it was meant to be a learn on the job kind of thing.

On further reflection knew that in the last three centuries he had been spending all his free time with Thor but Thor had needed him. Loki on the other hand had always been so collected almost never needed his or his mothers help to achieve anything. He never needed extra tutoring in his schooling or in diplomatic relations or even in etiquette whereas they had to help Thor in every single thing besides warfare. Although Loki chose not to work with a sword or an axe he knew his way around them and even if he wasn't the greatest warrior no one could out think him in tactics.

And no one could surpass his skills with a dagger. Odin had encouraged the dagger. He knew there were worlds out there where mages were not allowed to carry anything but a dagger to even the playing field against warriors. He had thought that Loki knew these things. When they travelled off word, he only took his daggers so there were never any problems that had come back to him about Asgard over arming a mage. Had it just been coincidence? Had no one explained to Loki that as a mage there were times and places that he wasn't supposed to be even armed?

Odin had planned that once Thor had settled down as king he would have all the time to spend with Loki. Make up for all the time he had lost with his son. He had planned to take Loki around with him when he went on a tour of all the realms, teach him about the magic of the Yggdrasil that was passed down from his ancestors to him. Magical knowledge that wasn't ever written down and was passed down through word of mouth to family. He had even plans to take Loki to Jötunheim. To show him the realm his grandmother was from and then he had ideas about maybe telling his son about his origins depending how it went. Now these were all just dreams and half made plans.

The court had gone easy on the second son of the king however they would demand his sons head if they knew what he was. Odin, despite all his son had done did not want his son to die, especially if the difference between an Asgardian and Jötunn was death. He would welcome him back when he had learned his lessons. It would not be the first time that Asgard forgave a royal family member who went berserk on other worlds and as long as they didn't do it to Asgard. In the councils eyes he had not had much, after all it was them that handed the throne to Loki knowing he was not destined for it and even less ready for it than Thor. For Loki to come back to his place as the second son, Loki's true parentage must remain secret.

Removing someone of their magic was simpler than many imagined. Through the eons the Asgardian healers working along with mages had perfected the art of removing every scrap of magic from a person. It wasn't even a painful procedure, a potion to drink to loosen the magical core on the body and then court mages with the careful eye of the healers drained the magic from a person's body. They then redistributed the magic into the realm, making Asgard even more powerful. There were even people who were willing to have the procedure done because they did not wish to be magical. This saddened Odin as every year there were more and more young people after realizing they were magical wrote in a request wanting to give up their magic. It had become something of an honor, giving up your magic for the good of Asgard and becoming a soldier.

It saddened the court as they lost possible magicians they needed mages to keep Asgard going. Asgard was a magical realm, it relied on magic to keep it going. It had been a group of mages who had saved Asgard many millennia ago from destruction. Asgard was a planet like any other when war and ill treatment had pulled the planet apart at the seams. The end had been near and the people had known it was matter of time before Asgard was no more. Many had fled to other planets when the most powerful magical beings of Asgard had gotten together for one last desperate attempt and pulled of one last trick, they had saved a part of Asgard, only a small part but still a part.

They had peeled away the capital city and its surrounding lands, lakes, mountains etc. away from the planet's surface and wrapped it around magic putting it on a magical cloud. Everything in Asgard was magic. The sea that ran off the end magically got back into the core and even the air that they breathed. The atmosphere was kept through the careful maintenance of its mages whose numbers were decreasing every year. Asgard still orbited the sun it had for eons however even daylight and night time was controlled by magic as Asgard always faced up.

Every 100 years the mages got together to recast the spells kept Asgard going. It took at least 100 magical beings to recast the spells and all would be exhausted for a few years after the casting. But Asgard's most protected time would be upon them once the spells were recast; Asgard became impenetrable, a time of peace as there were no threats or any adventures to other realms without mages. Odin all his life used up a great deal of his own magic. The royal house had a main representative to the spell casting and it had been Odin from a very young age. The casting had always left drained for at least a year afterwards but over the last 700 years he had been given a respite as his son had taken up the royal families responsibilities in keeping Asgard afloat.

There were only a handful that knew that Loki could alone cast the spells that would keep Asgard going. Even Loki wasn't told, Aegir the chief mage of the court, who was also Loki's teacher and mentor in all magical things, was adamant that Loki would not be told as the power might go to his head. And he had been proven right with all that happened in the past two years. Also Aegir believed that should Loki accept the responsibility of doing it alone it would be too much for the young mage who needed to travel and experience life. They knew that one day Loki would have taken over watching over Asgard, however these were now also pointless dreams.

Beside the ruling council there was a magical council that many did not know about. They were not a secret council, however they were forgotten. Seven sat on this council and Odin also had a seat in it as well as his wife. It wasn't a council seat where you got the position by family or by politics, you simply got it because you were one of the most powerful magical beings in the realm. The head of the council, who at the time was the most powerful magical being in the realm, that was Aegir at the moment, also sat on the ruling council so the voice of magic could be heard.

Loki had been destined for the head of this council. Odin had figured that he would have been offered a seat into the council in his second millennia, unheard of to join so young but he had been growing powerful as each day passed. He would eventually grow powerful enough to lead the council, therefore having a seat in the ruling council. Many in the court's ruling council had been nervous. With Loki as the head of the mages council and Thor as the king the realm would truly ruled by the House of Odin as they would hold the two most powerful positions in Asgard.

Odin now thought that he should have told his younger son more about what he was to be destined for. He hadn't even known Loki was this magical when he chose to take him from Jötunheim. When he had comforted his son in the weapons vaults, Odin had gotten up from the edge of Odin's sleep to stop him. He had been too late. Loki had already picked up the casket; he asked him '_you took me for a purpose, what was it?' _He had thought, let's start with the truth and go on from there.

When he had seen the son of Laufley in the temple he had taken him for the sole purpose of politics. He had thought that he would raise him as his ward with the full knowledge of who he was. He had known that despite Loki's size Laufley wouldn't have let the insult stand. He had brought Loki to his wife to keep hidden for a few days until things settled down. Then he would reveal his plan.

Loki hadn't really cooperated with his plans with staying quiet. He hadn't stopped crying. They weren't sure if it was because they were not his parents or he was reacting to the weather or to Asgard, he and Frigga weren't sure. But just in a few days they had found out that keeping Loki close calmed him. He enjoyed physical contact. Carrying him settled him when he was in a full blown 'someone is trying to murder me' crying. Frigga spent most of the days walking up and down their chambers with him on her shoulder. Odin had gotten up at night when Loki had woken giving his wife a rest and seen to Loki.

He had spent most of the nights walking and bouncing Loki on his shoulder, running gentle circles on his back telling him all about what was happening in Asgard, stories he knew and just talking in a soothing voice until Loki's crying had died down to hiccups and finally exhausted sleep. Then Odin would place him in bed between his wife and would place a hand on his back to keep him warm, which they found out that despite Loki being an Jötunn he enjoed being warm. It had worked on some occasions, Loki would awaken and all Odin would have to do was ran warm circles on his back and whisper soothing words and sometimes that would get him to go back to sleep. If not he started the whole routine again.

When a couple of days of sorting out the end of a war had turned into 19 days, it was time to reveal what he had done, however when the morning came to reveal Loki, Odin had found out that he would rather start another 1000 year old war rather than give up what he came to consider his own. Loki was his and Frigga's that was it. He had decided that he was going to raise Loki as his own.

'_But those plans no longer matter_,' he had said that day in the vault, he at that moment was back a 1000 years and telling himself that his plans no longer mattered. There was so much more he wanted to tell his son, he couldn't, he literally couldn't as he had fallen deeper and deeper into sleep and he remembered his all too collected son screaming at him but he had been unable to reach him. When he had woken everything had gone to hell. His son was lost. Lost when he was destined for so much more then what he had believed himself to be.

Thor was destined to be king, to protect the people of the realm. Loki was destined to be protector of the realm. In some ways the head of the magical council was more powerful then the king himself. The king had one vote in the ruling council and in theory so did the head of the magical council. However the ruling council usually had to bend to the will of the magical council because at the end of the day you did as they said because they controlled the air you breathed.

The house of Odin had a seat in the magical council because since the foundation there had been a member of the house hold who was magical enough to be offered a seat on the council. However for the first time since the beginning the House of Odin would rule both. Odin had heard the whispers; he had taken a Vanir witch wife for this purpose. He was hoping for a powerful magical offspring. When he had heard the whispers he had wanted to laugh out loud and now how he wished his son would have heard them. It would have given him a sense of belonging to know that the reason the people of the court hadn't liked him was because they were afraid of him and the power he would one day wield.

Odin knew that the removal of his son magic was also a political move by the council as they did not want the House of Odin to hold both positions of power. Loki was powerful, more powerful than many, even more than he himself knew. Over the years every time Loki joined in the spell casting there had been a few interesting incidents as Loki had over powered the spells and once they were left with hundreds of magical butterflies flying around the place for several weeks or there was the time the sun wouldn't set for days or the year that flowers that had grown from every surface.

People had accepted the explanation that it was the mistake of a young mage learning the spells, even Loki was given this explanation and looking back Odin had known he was disappointed in himself, he had thought that he had lacked control over his magic.

His friends had teased him, even Thor had teased him for getting it wrong, but they couldn't tell him it was happening because he was too powerful. Now Odin wished he had handled the whole thing differently. He had actually sat his son down and explained to him to him what was happening.

The handful with the deeper knowledge had known that the flowers that were growing everywhere were actually Asgard's actual flowers. Flowers that hadn't grown since they were a planet, they had answered Loki's call for life to the rock they were on. Odin wondered what would have happened if he had shown his real pleasure in Loki's magical talents, instead of the faint disappointment he had faked so people would not suspect his sons power. Would things now be different? If his son knew how proud Odin had been to call Loki his own?

Loki had been just a child, barely 4, when Odin had cast the 100 year spell with him standing between his legs for the very first time. He hadn't done anything, Odin had just let him feel the magic that he was wielding, it was unheard of one so young to be involved but Aegir had encouraged it. They had known that Loki was magical and it was a good idea for a magical child to feel Asgard's magic early. Odin had been so proud, he had beamed for at least a week afterwards at the weirdest things. People had whispered about it for weeks afterwards.

It had snowed that year.

Again a first as Asgard's weather was also controlled with magic and no mage since the beginning had been able to figure out how to change the seasons. It was always spring time in Asgard, flowers always bloomed. The farms always fruitful, the trees would lose their fruit only to bloom with flowers again.

Odin had known that his little Jötunn son's magic had caused the winter however people who had never seen snow and only heard about it in stories were delighted and believed it to be a sign that the 1000 year old war with Jotunheim was finally over and that they had won. It had continued to snow every year, Asgard having for the first time all its seasons. Odin wondered if they would lose the winter now as Loki would no longer be part of the casting and how people would react.

By stripping Loki of his magic they would be losing the young mages power. Odin wanted to protest, first he couldn't because of his position, and anyway Aegir had done enough shouting on the matter. He was against Loki's removal of magic, he agreed that Loki needed to be punished but he wasn't meant to lose his magic.

Then and more importantly was if they left Loki's magic to him he might grow to be more dangerous. In time when he realized just how much power he commanded then they might not be able to stop him next time. Loki could bring Midgard to its knees just by himself without the need of an army. Destroy other worlds just with his anger without the need of a Biforst.

Odin had to think like a king and not a father, this decision was for the best, Loki's formidable powers would be released to Asgard and make it stronger and Loki would just have to learn to live life as a normal none magical citizen of Asgard.

With that thought Odin put the paper down on the table in front of him and signed his name on it, he whispered a little charm to the deed to make it official and put it on the finished pile and with a heavy heart reached for the next document that demanded his attention.


	2. The Procedure

**Chapter 2 – The Procedure**

The people who had their magic removed with the procedure said it was like having stitches removed from ones person, uncomfortable, something you felt in your gut however none life threatening. The people were granted, even if they were punished with removal, to have a family member, partner or a friend present to oversee and overrule should something wrong were to happen. If it was punishment there was also a high ranking official to oversee the procedure as well.

Odin had said that he would oversee the procedure as the official, no one questioned it as he was also the highest ranking sorcerer in Asgard after Aegir who said he was not going to part of it. He had once again let his concerns be voiced, saying that some people were not meant to be removed from their magic and that Loki was one such person but he was once again overruled.

This morning when Odin had looked over the recording of the procedure being explained to Loki, he was asked whom from his family he would like with him, he had told the healers that he had no family.

_"I have no family," he had said staring straight ahead. The healer despite being taken back had recovered after a moment and had then asked about friends and had received a negative response. It was clear that the healer was at a loss of what to do when Loki had turned towards her and made eye contact._

_"I have no one that will stand with me so I suggest that you do whatever you do when the accused has no one."_

Normal procedure said that in these cases they, the court, assign a mind healer to the accused and then give the healer a few days to familiar themselves with the convicted and then proceed. Odin knew that if this came out the whole court would be in an uproar saying that Loki was trying to gain more time, he was planning something. Odin, however, had seen the dead look in his youngest son eyes when he had made the pronouncement; he truly believed that there had been no one, none in his family that would stand with him. He felt that if he had asked and then was refused, that would be even worse. Better to reject then be rejected.

Odin knew that was the furthest thing from the truth, Frigga had been working herself into a frenzy in the privacy of their chambers for the last three nights steadying herself should Loki ask. Both of them being magical knew what it meant to lose your magic. Odin had always joked that he would rather give up his only eye rather than his magic. They didn't want to think what their son was feeling, who had breathed and lived magic. She wanted to be strong and supporting should their son call on her. Odin had thought that Loki would have asked for her or at least Thor to stand with him, that is why he had made himself the official so he could be there as well.

Now he overruled Loki's request and put himself in place as the family member and assigned Sir Forseti as the official overseer. Sir Forseti was the head of the council, he was just and honorable. He was older then Odin himself and Odin knew he liked Loki. He was one of Loki's mentors, they both would have said no to war. "Negotiate first, then battle," was Sir Forseti's favorite saying. He was a fierce fighter against Asgard going to war and Loki was one of his students in that department. Odin had imagined that once Thor was king Loki would have taken Forseti's role as the peace keeper. Never in his life did Odin imagine that it would have been his younger gentler son that would start not just one war but two.

Odin presented himself at the healers three hours prior the procedure as demanded. Loki ignored him and stared straight ahead as a healer explained to them what Loki should be feeling and what to expect. The last half hour Loki and Odin were left in the room by themselves, as given, to talk but Loki seemed to be ignoring his adopted father and he flinched when Odin made a move towards him so Odin kept his silence and distance.

He just watched his son committing everything about him to memory because he even as king would not be allowed to see his son for the next hundred years as he worked in the mines. This would be last chance be would be able to see his son but for the life of him he could not find the right words to express himself. If he was honest with himself he did not want to. He was disappointed in Loki, he was so smart, the smartest person Odin had ever known, how could someone so smart make so many wrong choices. He felt if he opened his mount to speak he would be telling Loki all the things he had gotten wrong and his son at the moment did not need a parent belittling him for making terrible decisions. No matter how much he deserved to hear them.

Loki kept his silence as he was moved to a private room where the procedure would be taking place. He was made to sit on a high bed and a several IV lines were attached. Even as advance as they were in all areas no one had yet discovered a way to get substances into the blood stream in any other way. Many of them would be unnecessary however sometimes the person would lose consciousness and would remain that way for a few days. They would then have to keep the person hydrated.

The sights the needles went in were healed immediately and they looked like they became part of the body, Loki would not be uncomfortable during the procedure at any stage, which was the way of an advance civilization. Magic filled the air as his vitals went up magically around them to monitor. A high ranking healer declared Loki healthy for the procedure to proceed.

A relaxant was pushed through one of the IV lines and Odin watched as Loki tracked the purple colored potion going into his body with his eyes. He was then given a green colored potion in a large see through glass to drink. This was the potion that would loosen the magical core so it could be extracted. The glass was rather large and a lot to drink and would take Loki sometime to drink it all however he was told to take his time.

Without even raising his head Loki lifted the glass to his lips and started to drink. He had gotten perhaps two sips down his throat when he paused. A frown came upon his face as he looked down into the glass, he swallowed hard and took another sip. This time they could all see that the potion would not go down, he lowered the glass and they could see his shoulders and whole body tense as he tried to swallow. Odin thought that the whole potion would come back up as Loki lost all the color to his already pale face but with a stubborn determination raised the glass to take another sip. This time he swallowed easier than before but a full body shudder went through him. The healers looked at the readings and one noted that Loki's heart rate was rising.

"I know it is an unsettling experience my prince," said one of the healers, and Odin wanted to thank her for showing Loki the respect he did not deserve, "just take your time and continue when you can," she continued, and they watched as another healer pushed another relaxant into Loki's blood stream, this time it was Odin who tracked the pinkish substance travel up the line into his son body. Loki's heart rate slowly dropped down to almost normal and an unnatural flush came to his face. The healer who had spoken to Loki gently gave the bottom of the potion glass a tap silently telling Loki to continue.

This time Loki took a deep breath, closed his eyes, brought the glass to his lips and started drinking slowly but determinedly. When he was halfway through he stopped and brought the glass down. He tilted his head like he was listening to something only he could hear, they could all see on the readings that his heart rate was once again slowly raising. The hand that was holding the glass started to shake a little. Very little, unnoticeable but Odin was watching very carefully. Loki then opened his eyes and for the first time raised his eyes to look at Odin.

The only thing Odin saw in them was pain beyond imagination, how could one's body be that calm and they be in that much pain. Suddenly Odin, in his mind eye, saw the purple and pinkish potion and knew there was something wrong. He saw the healers moving forward to respond to his sons vitals that had began to rise at an alarming rate. His pupils dilated to almost leaving no green in them. Odin watched Loki swallow what was in his mouth with difficulty and with enormous effort his eyes focused on him.

"Fadir?" he said in a tiny lost voice, calling Odin by a title no Asgardian child did after learning to talk properly. Odin started to move forward towards his son even knowing he would not be fast enough. He never broke eye contact as Loki continued in a frightened whisper,

"I think there is something wrong," was the only thing Loki said before the glass in his hand was released from lax fingers to crash onto the floor but no one was paying it any attention as Loki's eyes rolled up into his head and he fell back onto to the bed and every single alarm in the room started going off.

Loki then arched off the bed as in great pain even as healers moved into restrain and help him. Odin made it to the bed side just in time to see Loki open his mouth and scream out his anguish off pain that was probably heard throughout the place.

Just then Asgard began to shake.


	3. Calmness in the Storm

**Chapter 3 – Calmness in the Storm**

Odin walked back into the medical hall that held his son. The tremors that had been happening for the last four days had finally subsided and the people were finally settling down, however only a few knew the reasons why the earthquakes had stopped. Odin looked over to where his youngest was lying down on his back on a medical bed with the hardest magical bindings they could find binding his body down and his whole bed was warded with the strongest force fields the court mages could throw up. There were runes that were shining on the floor keeping his sons magic locked inside. The runes had been completed just that morning, hence the reason for the calmness.

Loki himself looked like he was dead, all his color had drained and his eyes had sunken into his body and it was almost black around his eyes. He had sweated a lot during the last 4 days and even now Odin could see that his clothes had been soaked through. For the last two days healers couldn't even get close enough to help him so he was in the same clothes he was in two days ago, soaked and plastered on him. He looked very very sick and small lying in that bed. He shivered and Odin could feel his magic banging it's self against the invisible walls. It was rather like a mad man throwing himself against the walls, desperate, frantic and insane. Despite the magic not being seen the physical evidence of what was happening was evident on Loki's body.

The only thing that was keeping them safe were the runes on the floor, however they knew it was a matter of days before Loki's magic broke through and then all of Asgard was doomed. In the last couple days they could all see where this was leading. It seemed that something had gone wrong during the procedure and Loki's magic had lashed out and Asgard had answered.

Loki's magic was out of control on a course to explode.

It had been feeding of Asgard's magic therefore making the whole realm unstable. While people only heard rumors about what was happening, the ruling council knew, they had to find a way to control Loki otherwise as he literally drowned in his own magic he would take the entire realm with him. The Allfather had spent the whole morning talking to their alias to see if they would take Asgard refuges. It was the worst case scenario should they not be able to find a way to solve the problem. They were going to have to evacuate the whole realm.

Odin wanted to believe that there was a way that they could save Asgard, as a king his first responsibility was to the realm but if given the choice he would first chose to save his son. He knew that the answer somehow lay with Loki. They needed to find out what went wrong and fix it. The other choice would be what Aegir had been saying all along, some people were not to be separated from their magic and they were paying the price for trying.

The people of Asgard had never been subjected to an earthquake before as their world was maintained through magic. Two days into the panic and shaking the council had came up with a radical decision to the problem and that was to remove Loki from Asgard. Odin's heart had broken as he had came to realize that he would have to give up his son to save his world.

A barren moon that could sustain life was found and they planned to move Loki there and a group of volunteer healers and mages that would stay with the young prince and try to help him. They were to evacuate if there were no other choices. They were to leave him there should his magic explode. The moon would be destroyed but Asgard would have been safe.

They had prepped Loki and pumped him with enough tranquilizers to leave him dead. Odin was not the only one who noticed the intention behind the overdose and he didn't remember ever being that angry! They were punishing Loki, not condemning him to death. They were an advance race. They gave everyone a second chance at life. Besides what was happening to Loki was not his fault!

The healer and council member responsible for making the decision to quietly kill Loki by themselves had been arrested and placed under-guard until a time they could deal with the problem. Odin wanted to point out to them what a stupid decision trying to kill Loki was. The council might have decided that killing Loki might have been their last chance but now the decision would never get made, now that someone had tried to do it.

Sometimes Asgard's laws where more hindrance than a help, the reason why Odin had dealt with Thor himself the moment he had set foot back on Asgard. If Thor had made it back to the palace he would have been made to face the council and that would have taken a long time to sort out the problem and he might have never learnt his lesson. He had told the council that he had used his position to decide quickly to avoid war.

After making sure that Loki was at least alive from the overdose preparations had continued and they had moved him to the Biforst site and made the necessary adjustments for transport. However the moment the Biforst had started they felt the ground that had been gently shaking for the last two days give a shake like it was trying to buckle them off followed by a explosion no one would ever forget.

They had rushed outside to see the great mountain Agri erupt. The screams of the people in the city could be heard from the Biforst site. Asgard had no core, so there was nothing under the great mountain, the fact that it was spurting colorful lava left and right, left no meaning to the fact that this was magical. They had all heard the stories that had been told about the mountain how it had once been a formidable volcano but it had been silent from the moment Asgard became a magical floating rock.

As another great explosion took place, with lava shooting high into the sky from the mountain, also creating a mushroom of smoke everyone with an inkling of magic heard a commending order like it was spoken out loud,

"NO!"

It was short and clipped and with the order the Biforst shut itself down. Leaving those that were there with no misunderstandings, Loki would not be leaving Asgard, they the ruling council had been overruled by Asgard herself, doomed to die with the land if they couldn't find a solution to the problem. Odin was an optimist, he liked to believe that his kingdom was trying to tell them something. They just needed to figure out what.

Now Odin had a few minutes to spare and wanted to see how his son was doing. He walked around the runes on the floor and found the one that would let him through. He said the charm that would grant him access and walked in. Suddenly it felt like he had walked into a storm, a magical storm. Everything within the confined area was loud and you were left the impression of being cold and blown about by the wind.

After the incident at the Biforst things had gotten worse. Healers couldn't get close to Loki, his magic was throwing people back, and they couldn't even get close enough to get any readings. It was either Loki who was unconsciously protecting himself or Asgard that was not letting anyone near. The gentle shaking's of the first two days were replaced by violent bursts of trembling which even made walking difficult. Violent storms had joined in the fun as well. Thunder and lightning had been constant, Thor the 'supposed' god of thunder could do nothing to calm the storms.

It had taken 12 mages to get close enough to place bindings on Loki. And even with the bindings and the wards no one could get close, however Odin was determined so he battled though the storm to his sons bed side. He liked to believe that his son magic on some level recognized him and that was one of the reasons he was being let close.

He walked to the bedside and stared down at his son who struggling to break free of the bindings. Odin took in his face, suddenly he was reminded of a little Loki when he was about eight. He had fallen ill, magically ill because he had tried a spell that was too advanced for him. It was a common problem with magical children, the spell would call on too much magic and then the child would not be able to reel the magic back in. The parents of magical children, who most of the time who were magical themselves, were thought the calming charm, it was simply letting your magic calm the child's wild magic.

That was the first night both Odin and Frigga had stayed up all night with Loki worried sick when they knew both of them must have had the same problem when they were younger. Their worry continued even when the healer had told them that Loki would be fine in the morning and he had woken up like nothing had been wrong.

That wasn't the first time Loki had fallen magically ill, nor would it be the last. Throughout the years he had tried again and again spells that were too advanced for him and Odin or Frigga would spend the night with him calming his magic down. As Loki grew he became embarrassed whenever the incident happened, you needed physical contact to the person for the charm to work. Until Loki was about 12 they had simply found that the solution was to take Loki into their bed when it happened. They would place him in the middle and then Odin or Frigga or sometimes both of them could keep physical contact.

However after one incident when Loki chose to hide rather then come to them they opted to go to him. The servants had found him one morning in a linen closet shaking and delirious with uncontrolled magic, after talking to him about it they had found out that Thor had been teasing him about sleeping in their parents bed and he wished that it would not be so. From then on they had gone to Loki's chambers, Frigga would simply do it by sitting on the bed and having Loki place his head on her thigh. She then would embroider all night gently humming and calming the restless magic that was so uniquely Loki.

Odin had always chosen the option of sitting on the bed and placing his hand on his sons back or chest and running gentle circles, telling him about his day and his own adventures into magic until Loki fell asleep. He cherished those nights, even when he was worried every single time. They reminded him of a new born Loki that he carried around at night. He hadn't been able to spend enough time with his youngest and this was one way of making up for being an absent father. Those nights came to end sooner then expected, Loki hadn't needed his parents after about 4 centuries. It was unusual for a mage, Odin remembered needing his mother on a few occasions even after he became king when he was around 1000. Even now sometimes he needed his wife to help calm him down after a whole day of sitting on the throne and keeping an eye on all the realms.

Odin without conscious thought raised his hand placed it on Loki's chest like he had done so many other times when he was little and he could feel Loki's tense muscles slightly relax under him, it was like he recognized Odin in the middle of the storm. Suddenly he wondered; could it really work? He was saying the simple charm even before he could think about it. He felt his magic reaching for Loki's calmly and suddenly Loki's was reaching for him desperately. It grabbed onto his like someone who was being tossed about in a wild stormy sea and they kept sinking below the waves and suddenly there was a hand and they could keep their head above the water and finally could breathe.

Suddenly it was like the entire room took a deep breath and calmed. Odin knew the moment he cut physical contact the magic would be once again be out of control. Healers started to come over to see what it was that Odin had done, Odin looked at one of them and said, "someone needs to get my wife here," when no one moved, he barked out, "NOW!" and there were people scrambling everywhere to get things done.

Frigga almost flew into the healers ward a few moments later and took in where Odin was, she had been spending all her time here but Loki's magic also pushed her back along with everyone else. Despite not being allowed near she had been here, she had stepped away to help with the preparation of a possible evacuation.

Despite Frigga being closer to their son in every way it had always been Odin's magic that Loki answered to first when he was younger and then others could take over. There was no need to communicate with words between them she understood right away what Odin had done. One of the requirements for the calming charm was that you needed physical contact for the whole duration and Frigga walked around without breaking eye contact with Odin and stepped though the runes, came closer to the bed and placed her hand on Loki's chest as and murmured the charm. Odin felt Loki's hold on him go lax and grab onto Frigga.

Odin reluctantly let go, not that he wanted to, he could hold onto his son forever if he knew that it would help. He just knew that he could get better answers out there. He turned towards the healers and mages that were in the room and barked at them,

"Find out what went wrong with the procedure and what the HELL is wrong with my son!" with that moved out of the ward, he could make some new plans now that there was a little chance that they could find out what was happening.


End file.
